Well the situation is that our cat Puck has been sneezing…

Customer Question

Hello well the situation...

Hello well the situation is that our cat Puck has been sneezing continuously and this started yesterday at about 3 ish i would say and today she tends to sneeze and is all plugged up and is having a hard time breathing she still has an appetite and she has been drinking water do you think it is for her best interest and ours to bring her to an emergency vet or do you think she will be fine until we call to make an appointment for her in the morning and is we do wait til the morning is there anything we can do to make it easier on her ?

Veterinarian's Assistant: I'll do all I can to help. What is the cat's name and age?

Puck and she is about 8 years old

Veterinarian's Assistant: Is there anything else important you think the Veterinarian should know about Puck?

I’m sorry to hear that Puck is sneezing continuously, and is congested.

I suspect that she has picked up a contagious upper respiratory infection. An upper respiratory infection in cats is just like a cold in you and I, and these are commonly caused by a virus, the most common one being Herpes virus. These are easily caught by breathing in virus particles in the air from a sneeze or nasal or eye discharge. Some cats get sicker than others and young, healthy adult cats seem to tolerate them and fight them off better than very young kittens or older cats. Symptoms range from a mild runny nose and occasional sneeze to severe congestion, coughing, repeated sneezing, fever, eye discharge, and in some cases fatal pneumonia.

I am glad that she is still eating well, and we want that continue.

You can help her feel better by adding warm water to her food to make it smell more (they don't eat well if they cannot smell) as well as making it easier to swallow with a sore throat.Also the more fluids she gets the better. Offer tuna juice, low salt chicken broth, run the tap if she likes to drink out of the sink.

Take her into the bathroom with you if you run a hot bath or shower as the steam will soothe her sore throat and airways.

If her nose become very congested you can use sterile saline to loosen the thick mucous and remove it. She won't like it but it will help her breathe and be able to smell her food better. You can also use sterile saline to remove eye mucous if it accumulates.

You can give her an amino acid supplement called L-lysine at a dose of 500mg orally twice daily. If this infection is due to Herpes this amino acid interferes with virus replication and will shorten the infection's duration and severity. Good supplements to try are made by the Viralys brand which comes in a powder to add to the food or a tasty gel.

Some lethargy is understandable, let her rest as she needs rest to get better. If your cats normally go outdoors keep her (them) inside until they are back to their normal playful selves.

If you want to try Benadryl (diphenhydramine) to dry up her nose a normal dose is 1mg per pound every 8 to 12 hours. So a cat 8-15 pounds could take one half of a 25mg tablet every 8 to 12 hours. Benadryl is very bitter and some cats will drool excessively or may even vomit because of that. That doesn't mean it is making her ill, she just hates the taste. If that's the case with her try a different antihistamine, chlorpheniramine at 4mg per cat orally every 12 to 24 hours.

If she runs a high fever (more than 104F), has a green or yellow nasal or eye discharge, stops eating even with coaxing and clearing her nose and eyes, or starts coughing or having difficulty breathing then she needs a veterinary exam. But at this point because she is still eating you can try a watch and see approach.

Sometimes these upper airway infections turn into pneumonia so that's what we need to guard against. In most cases antibiotics aren't needed and can contribute to a decrease in appetite so I don't tend to prescribe them unless I feel there is evidence of a secondary bacterial component. These include a green or yellow eye or nasal discharge, evidence of pneumonia upon listening to their lungs or an infection that lingers beyond the normal 7 to 10 days.

I highly recommend testing her for feline leukemia and feline immunodeficiency viruses if her respiratory infection lingers. These immunosuppressive viruses will make a simple infection much worse as they stop the immune system from fighting infections the way it was designed to do.

Other reasons for sneezing and nasal congestion are an infected tooth root, a foreign body inhaled into the nose or a nasal polyp. If she isn't much better in 7 to 10 days she needs a veterinary visit.

Hello, I wanted to make sure that you didn't have any further questions for me, and I'd like to know how things turned out for your kitty. If you could give me an update that would be great, thank you, ***** *****

I will tell you that...the things you have to go through to be an Expert are quite rigorous.

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Disclaimer: Information in questions, answers, and other posts on this site ("Posts") comes from individual users, not JustAnswer; JustAnswer is not responsible for Posts. Posts are for general information, are not intended to substitute for informed professional advice (medical, legal, veterinary, financial, etc.), or to establish a professional-client relationship. The site and services are provided "as is" with no warranty or representations by JustAnswer regarding the qualifications of Experts. To see what credentials have been verified by a third-party service, please click on the "Verified" symbol in some Experts' profiles. JustAnswer is not intended or designed for EMERGENCY questions which should be directed immediately by telephone or in-person to qualified professionals.